Mi'sel Joe: An Aboriginal Chief’s Journey

By Raoul R. Andersen and John K. Crellin

The inspirational memoir of a Mi'kmaq civil rights leader.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Flanker Press
• Release date: Jun 12, 2009
• ISBN: 9781897317938

Raoul R. Andersen

Raoul Andersen and John Crellin are honorary research professors at Memorial University. Their backgrounds in anthropology, history, and medicine lie behind many collaborative activities. Ever since a Memorial University medical student undertook a project at Conne River in 1993, Andersen and Crellin have been involved with Mi’sel Joe in a variety of conferences and other educational activities.

Book preview

COMPILED AND EDITED BY

RAOUL R. ANDERSEN AND JOHN K.CRELLIN

FLANKER PRESS LTD.

ST. JOHN’S

2009

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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Joe, Mi´sel, 1947-

Mi´sel Joe : an aboriginal chief's journey / edited by Raoul R. Andersen

and John K. Crellin.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-897317-42-6

1. Mi´sel, Joe, 1947-. 2. Micmac Indians--Newfoundland and Labrador--

Conne River--Kings and rulers--Biography. 3. Micmac Indians--Newfoundland

and Labrador--Conne River--Biography. 4. Micmac Indians--Biography.

I. Andersen, Raoul, 1936- II. Crellin, J. K. III. Title.

PS8635.I355B33 2008            C813'.6            C2008-904360-X

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© 2009 by Raoul R. Andersen and John K. Crellin

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of the work covered by the copyright hereon may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means—graphic, electronic or mechanical— without the written permission of the publisher. Any request for photocopying, recording, taping or information storage and retrieval systems of any part of this book shall be directed to Access Copyright, The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency, 1 Yonge Street, Suite 800, Toronto, ON M5E 1E5. This applies to classroom use as well.

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We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP) for our publishing activities; the Canada Council for the Arts which last year invested $20.1 million in writing and publishing throughout Canada; the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, Department of Tourism, Culture and Recreation.

For all

Our People

"When people appreciate their own history,

that’s healthy."

Contents

Preface

1: Worlds Apart

At the time I didn’t think we were being oppressed

I learned to fear outside authorities

I can’t remember ever being hungry

I wasn’t sickly or anything

Borrowing things between families was common

In the early days, we lived along the lines of the clan system

The choice was to go to work

In 1964, I figured this is enough Newfoundland stuff

The hardest part of all was the loss of dignity

Working on the tracks

Trying to find me

They used to call me the Newfoundland Tonto

I was one of those picked to go to Churchill Falls

I wanted to be able to smell the woods again

I had found out how to go all around that circle

2: Struggle for Dignity

The whole picture of chief came forward

We had to learn how to heal ourselves

I had a vision experience

White caribou

A welfare issue

People began to lose sight of pulling together

The walk

3: Recovering Traditional Values and Ways

The conflict took a toll for a long time

The sweat lodge

Ceremonies

Sentencing circles

The Mi’kmaq always had a seasonal routine

Women were powerful in the community

Lots of our history is connected to Miquelon

There are still wakes at home

In many ways we were no different

Stories of Mount Sylvester

If you want a cure, Bay Nord was the place to go

For everyday things people used the plants we have

We need to let people know what we are doing

Our Stonehenge is our wigwam and our canoe

Voyages

The Pow-wow connects us to the past

Children must be part of our tradition

Many of our traditions are coming alive again

4: Community Services

Spiritual and community journeys

The Clinic is the hub of our community services

Child and youth services

Our elders are as important to us as our children

When an elder walks through the door

We built what we called a Spiritual Building

We no longer have our own police

Employment is an important aspects of a person’s dignity

Developing life skills is important for our community

Job creation means we have to be entrepreneurs

The Band Council’s projects must have support

5: Journeys and the Future

My journey has really been many journeys

Acknowledgements

Bibliography

About Mi’sel Joe

About the Editors

Index

Illustrations

Map of Conne River region

Map of Atlantic Canada

Mi’sel Joe dressed for confirmation

Tractor driving on Lever Brothers Mushroom Farm

Mi’sel Joe at the Calgary Stampede

On King’s Ranch, High River, Alberta

Michael Joe Sr. and Martin Jeddore

Newspaper clippings surrounding the hunger strike

Meeting the Grand Chief, Donald Marshall, Sr

Photograph of two Mi’kmaq guides (c. 1907)

ATVs, today’s vehicles for hunting

Classes on trapping and preparing skins

Basket making class

Old church at Conne River, early 1900s

Matteau and Uncle Mick (c. 1950s)

Rebuilt church in Conne River, photographed in 1998

Birchbark wigwam on the Medicine Trail

Drummers, choir, and dancers of Conne River (c. 1990s)

Drummers chanting (c. 2000)

Hawaiian double-hulled canoe, 1995

Birch bark ready for construction

Collecting spruce roots

Canoe under construction

Symbolic eagle

The Spirit Wind

Birchbark canoe and water plane

Trial run in canoe with MP Roger Simmons

Visiting Mi’kmaq craftsman fashioning a canoe paddle

Poster advertising Conne River Pow-wow of 1996

Mi’sel Joe at Pow-wow 2000

Wigwam hotel during the 1998 Pow-wow

Brenda Jeddore rehearsing choir at St. Anne’s School, 1990s

A scene from St. Anne’s School Pow-wow

Mi’sel Joe’s liner notes for choir’s CD

Mi’sel Joe talking with students

Band Council Building

Calendar recognizing knowledge and experience of elders

Information leaflets highlighting Band Clinic’s services

The Spiritual Building, photographed 1998

Entertaining the captain of a cruise ship (2007)

Mi’sel Joe working on a canoe paddle (1996)

Mi’sel Joe greets Pope John Paul II in St. John’s, 1984

SCB Fisheries building (c. 2000)

Reconnecting with Miquelon (2004)

Preface

SAQAMAW OR CHIEF Mi’sel Joe (b. 1947), traditional and elected chief of Newfoundland and Labrador’s Conne River Mi’kmaq, tells of his encounters with Canadian society, rediscovery of his people’s culture, and the development of his community – the Conne River Reserve or, more properly, the Miawpukek First Nation. His story will touch the interests of a wide range of readers within the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, and all those with a general interest in aboriginal affairs, community health, and revitalization.

The chief’s story is about a changing life and community. He admits that he is only one witness to the events and circumstances described. After all, no single individual owns the whole story. It is an oral history, a personal account, and, like written history, it is incomplete. What he tells us does not explore the intricacies of such matters as negotiations and differing visions within and between the Conne River band and provincial and federal levels of government, but it adds important perspective. Rather, its focus reflects our shared desire to capture the growing awareness of Mi’kmaq traditions, values and spirituality within the Conne River community.

Conne River people and Mi’kmaq elsewhere in Newfoundland and Labrador and on the mainland have undergone centuries of assaults by European colonization, government and Church policies, and other social forces that have undermined and alienated them from their traditional beliefs, values and practices. Readers with a particular interest in the nature of change will find Chief Joe’s knowledge of and search for his people’s traditional ways especially instructive when compared with historical accounts of Mi’kmaq culture.

Our early interest in the Conne River community coincided with a time of great stress for countless communities in Newfoundland arising from the 1992 federal moratorium on the Northern cod commercial fishery due to overfished stocks.

It was probably no mere coincidence that the reassertion of traditional Mi’kmaq values and the need for respect coincided with the Conne River community’s development of grassroots self-government and programs for economic sustainability. The themes of recovery, sustainability, and the building of healthy communities were in the air. The Conne River community was doing just that. Of course, we are not saying that tensions did not arise, some of which were in terms of traditionalists versus non-traditionalists (or moderns), but they became less and less disruptive. Such tensions are widely met and perhaps inevitable in all community development.

We felt it was important to capture Mi’sel Joe’s own words for specific reasons aside from a life story. One is that his recollections of Newfoundland life add perspective to familiar Newfoundland history such as accessing health care, the demise of midwifery, and the public health voyages of the Christmas Seal, also known as the TB ship. Another reason is because of the variety of ways in which Chief Joe is viewed – as a healer, as a leader, as an astute politician. People, many from outside his community, who see him as a healer are not so much interested in traditional medicines (this knowledge has been largely lost to the community), but as a spiritual healer in ways that cross religious boundaries. Much of that lies in his teaching about values and spirituality – often seen in his stories and reflections – that many find to be holistic, something they themselves are searching for.

Mi’sel Joe is a recognized leader by virtue of being both traditional chief (conferred by the Mi’kmaq Grand Chief) and, over the years, administrative chief (elected biennially). As such, questions arise about the separate roles of each. How often and where do they meld? How is this different from the traditional leadership of the past? How does having both roles affect political decision making? While this oral memoir is that of a First Nations leader in an aboriginal community in the most eastern province of Canada, much of it will resonate with all aboriginal people, whether living on or off reserves. His accounts of early life in Conne River and migratory work on the mainland offer testimony to entrenched contradictions in Euro-North American society; industry recruits aboriginal labour (often at low wages), while prejudice and stereotyping, and perhaps fear, have created a surfeit of hardships for countless aboriginal people and stolen their dignity.

At the same time, the memoir as a whole will resonate with many non-aboriginal communities today, large and small, as they struggle to provide their citizens with fundamental opportunities, services, and security. This is often difficult, especially for small rural communities where declining industry and employment trigger a chain of challenging consequences that include outmigration, aging populations, and reduced health, education, and social services. It is noteworthy that today many people – including government officials – recognize Conne River as a success story, a model, in the creation of a healthy community. This is in the face of the special difficulties facing First Nations communities. Across Canada, regardless of their treaty and other rights, aboriginal communities have been disrupted, if not eliminated, with loss of traditional lands and languages. Land claims linger on, unresolved, for decades. Aboriginal children often receive inadequate formal education, and rates of unemployment, family instability, domestic violence, substance abuse, and suicide exceed national averages.

Mi’sel Joe graciously agreed to let us tape-record his memories and reflections after a number of collaborative activities between the Conne River Community and Memorial University during the 1990s. The activities included traditional medicine conferences, educational trips to England and Hawaii, and the development of opportunities for medical students to visit the Conne River community to better understand health issues. His story, recorded over a number of years, then transcribed and silently edited, falls into five chapters; together they offer a sense of the richness of Mi’kmaq culture before it was suppressed by the priests, especially Father Stanley St. Croix, and finally conscious attention to the revitalization of past traditions that fit into the modern world.

In the first chapter, Mi’sel Joe tells of his early life in the isolated Conne River community in Bay d’Espoir on Newfoundland’s south coast, and, secondly, as a young man going west to mainland Canada. There, in a migratory work pattern with occasional respites back in Conne River, he experienced a wide range of jobs – ranching, the railroad, mining, operating heavy equipment, logging, and commercial fishing. It was a time of self-discovery and learning amid loneliness, disillusion, stereotyping, and repeated episodes of illness and recovery. In the second chapter, he tells of a major clash with the provincial government that precipitated some band members to go on hunger strike, and a period of discord within the community. The remaining chapters focus on traditional ways, and community development that has been underpinned not only by increasingly effective self-government and commercial initiatives, but also by a continuing effort to appreciate traditional values.

Each page of Chief Joe’s account raises questions for further enquiry, especially about the search for identity in a changing world. His story contributes to literature both by Mi’kmaq and non-Mi’kmaq people (some is noted in the annotated bibliography). We hope the account will encourage other Mi’kmaq people, both on and off reserves, to add their voices and reflections on their own community journeys.

A few notes are added here as historical perspective on the Newfoundland Mi’kmaq, who are the most easterly extension of contemporary Algonquian–speaking peoples in North America. Their primary historical identity in Newfoundland, as a hunting and trapping people, contrasts with that of Newfoundland’s white European people in onshore and offshore commercial fisheries. Just how long they have been a presence in Newfoundland remains an issue of historical debate, as made clear in Mi’sel Joe’s comments. In